


Emmett

by petersnotkingyet



Series: Family Ties [5]
Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Child Abandonment, Child Neglect, Family, Foster Care, Gen, Hospitals, None of the Cullens date each other in this verse bc that's big gross
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-10-03 17:41:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17288495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/petersnotkingyet/pseuds/petersnotkingyet
Summary: How Emmett ended up with the Cullens





	Emmett

“Dad?” Rosalie said.  “Could you drive me to check on Emmett?”

“Emmett?” Carlisle asked.  Rosalie nodded.

“He’s a boy in my theater class,” she said.  “He must be sick or something.  He hasn’t been at school all week, and nobody’s talked to him.”

“We can go by and see if we can talk to his mom,” Carlisle agreed.  It was an odd request, but he was willing to indulge her.  Rosalie didn’t take an interest in her peers often.  “Do you know where he lives?”

“Yeah, I saw him get off the bus when I went home with Haley to work on our science fair project,” Rosalie said. 

“Okay,” Carlisle said.  “If you’ll give me fifteen minutes to finish up with this, we’ll go.”

“Thanks, Dad,” the twelve year old said before going to put on her shoes.

Emmett lived on the other side of town.  It wasn’t a long drive, but the houses changed drastically.  Carlisle paused apprehensively before pulling into the driveway Rosalie indicated.  The yard was overgrown, and there weren’t any cars or bikes outside. There was a light on upstairs, and it spilled out through the cracked window pane. Otherwise, there was no sign anyone was home.  Rosalie ignored her father’s reluctance as she bounced up the front steps and rang the doorbell.

“They might be out of town, Rose,” Carlisle said when no one answered.  Rosalie ignored him and rang the bell again.  When no response came, she tried the handle.  “Rosalie,” Carlisle warned sharply when the door swung open, but Rosalie was already going inside.

Carlisle hesitated before following her in, and that gave Rosalie time to bound up the staircase.  By the time he caught up, she’d disappeared behind one of four identical doors in the upstairs hall.  He paused again for a moment before Rosalie shrieked, _“Dad!”_ and he followed her through the third door.

He’d been a doctor long enough to recognize the smell of sickness.  The small bedroom smelt stale and sweaty.  The boy—Emmett—was lying in bed, oblivious to the two intruders.  His lips were tinged blue, and he was shivering under his comforter.  Carlisle’s professional and paternal instincts took over, and he hurried across the room.  Even without a thermometer, he could tell Emmett’s temperature was much too high, but the boy wasn’t sweating anymore.  His wheezing was audible for Carlisle even got close to him.

“Rose,” Carlisle said.  “I need you to find a bathroom and wet some washcloths with cold water.  I’m going to call an ambulance for Emmett.”

Rosalie nodded frantically and rushed to do as he’d said.

“Emmett, my name is Carlisle,” the doctor said while his phone rang.  The fifth grader gave no indication he heard him.  “I’m Rosalie’s dad.  I’m a doctor, and I’m going to help you.”

“I know the fever makes you feel cold,” Carlisle said as he pulled the comforter aside, “but your fever’s too high.”  He adjusted Emmett’s pillows before propping the ten year old up against them.  Emmett groaned quietly, but he still didn’t speak.  Carlisle continued talking to him.  “We’re going to sit you up to help your breathing a little until help gets here.”

Rosalie returned with a pile of wet wash clothes.  Carlisle quickly dispersed them onto Emmett’s forehead and bare chest.  They weren’t cold enough to be a shock to his system, but it’d help to keep his temperature from going any higher.

“Rose, I need you to go downstairs and watch for the ambulance,” Carlisle said calmly.  “You’ll need to show them where we are when they get here.”

“Okay,” Rosalie said.  She took one lingering glance at Emmett before hurrying back downstairs.

The ambulance arrived within minutes, but it felt much longer for Carlisle.  Emmett was painfully small to look at.  His lips were still blue, and the wheezing had only gotten marginally better.  Beyond sitting him up and trying to cool him down a little, there was nothing Carlisle could do outside of a hospital.

One of the paramedics recognized Carlisle as soon as Rosalie lead them upstairs.  Carlisle explained the situation as quickly and told them that there had been no sign of anyone else in the house in the time they had been there.  Judging by the state Emmett was in, no one had been there for a while.  Carlisle and Rosalie followed the ambulance to the hospital, but once they were there, there was nothing to do but give a statement to CPS and wait.

“Donna,” Carlisle said softly to the CPS agent, glancing back at where Rosalie sat in a row of plastic chairs.  They’d met several times before through Carlisle’s work at the hospital.  “It didn’t look like an adult had been in that house for quite a while.”

“I didn’t tell you this, but we’ve gotten calls about Emmett before,” she said.  “There was never enough to make it stick, though.”

“If he needs somewhere to go, we’ll take him,” Carlisle said certainly.  While he hadn’t mentioned that particular topic, he had called Esme between Emmett’s house and the hospital.  The heartbreak in her voice was enough to know she would be open to taking in another child.

“I’ll rush the paperwork,” Donna said.  “God, Carlisle, I wish there were more foster parents like you.”

“Is there any way we can sit with him while the paperwork is in progress?” Carlisle asked.

“I’ll take care of it,” Donna said, nodding.  “A kid shouldn’t be alone in the hospital with pneumonia.  I’ll get your whole family on the list.”

“Thank you,” Carlisle said before going back to sit with Rosalie.

“Are we going to foster him?” Rosalie asked.  She’d recognized who Donna was.

“It looks like it,” Carlisle said.  “Are you okay to sit here while I step outside and call Mom?”

Rosalie nodded.  “I’ll come get you if they all for Emmett.”

“Rose, I’m not going to tell you to make a habit of bursting into unlocked houses,” Carlisle said, “but thank you for listening to your instincts today.  I don’t know that Emmett would have made it much longer if you hadn’t wanted to check on him.”

“Dad,” Rosalie mumbled.  She bit her lip and her nose curled.  “I…”

“What is it, honey?”

“I didn’t want to check on him,” she blurted shakily.  “I wanted to yell at him.  He was in my group for my theater project, and he missed the presentation today and we had to do it with three people instead of four like everybody else.  I thought he was just skipping.”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” Carlisle said.

“I’m awful,” Rosalie said.  “He was almost dead, and I wanted to yell at him.”

“Rose, you aren’t awful,” Carlisle said.  “The important thing is we found him.  Something in your gut told you we needed to be in that house, and Emmett is going to be okay because of it.  There’s no reason to beat yourself up.  Understand?”

“Yeah,” Rosalie said, knuckling discretely at her eyes.  “You better go call Mom.”

“Are you sure?” Carlisle asked.  “I can wait a minute.”

“No, I’m okay,” she said.

“Okay,” Carlisle agreed.  He leaned over to kiss the top of her head.  “I’ll be right back.”


End file.
